The penetration and performance of free software is raising issues regarding its true capacities and, particularly, the desirability of choosing it. It is from this perspective that the Linux Migration Project was launched within the Sous-secrétariat à l'inforoute gouvernementale et aux resources informationnelles (SSIGRI). The project, supported by a CIRANO research team, seeks to assess the risks involved in the migration project and to identify the conditions for success. This report describes an assessment of the risk exposure of one of the groups participating in the project: end users.

Principal results

The risk assessment that was conducted enabled the following observations to be made:

• The project risk exposure is medium to high.
• Three objectives, and more particularly the first, are vulnerable to a relatively high level of risk: Operational continuity for the user, Interactional continuity for users, and Technical support.
• Two risk factors were undervalued in this project because of the very nature of the project:


• Mismatch between the functionalities of the free office suite/functionalities targeted by the organization;


• Degree of interdependence with non-project units/persons. This factor is important as a result of the context in which the project is being carried out, particularly the absence of a shared interoperability framework.

A review of these risk factors could result in a new positioning on the risk exposure map for four of the five objectives, in particular for the two objectives that are related to the two undervalued factors.